Class to be a BBC America Co-Production

BBC America have confirmed they will be co-producing the new Doctor Who Spin off series, Class.

The eight part series is written by American young adult writer Patrick Ness, best known for his award-winning book A Monster Calls.

The series will be set in Coal Hill school in contemporary London, and is executive produced by Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin, the team behind Doctor Who, and is due to be screened in Autumn 2016.

BBC America have also confirmed they have commissioned a new original scripted series based on the Dirk Gently books.

The series is an adaptation of former Doctor Who Script Editor Douglas Adams’ comic novels, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and is set in the world of its hyperactive, absurdist, eponymous detective, Dirk Gently.

The books were inspired by the unfinished Doctor Who story Shada, intended for transmission in 1980 but never completed due to a BBC strike.

The channel have ordered eight one-hour episodes, scripted by Max Landis. The books were previously adapted for BBC Four, with Stephen Mangan in the title role and shown between 2010 and 2012.